Official Coyne family reunion is today (Coyne is my MIL's maiden name). Unofficially, some folks showed up yesterday -- mostly to get started on some food things early but as it turns out a repair to the chair swing happened when someone sat on it and something went kerflooey. Then Sunday morning there will be a breakfast gathering of anyone still in the area. Word is there will be around 55 people today.

Also, yesterday evening I discovered a hornet nest being built right near where the main festivities will be. Only one sting, thankfully. It's been more than a few years since that's happened... reminded me of when I used to get allergy shots.

This morning I need to do more of the mulching I was doing when I was...interrupted by the hornets, then gather some kale and make something for the gathering. It will involve GF pasta, aged cheddar, kale, onions, garlic, and possibly some almond milk or olive oil.

Have a lovely day, everyone!

Oops, missed posting on Saturday... family gathering for Christmas. This day started earlier in the week, as we found out that niece Beth and nephew Chris's plans had gotten changed again (family gatherings are complicated), so they would in fact be at the Ashfield Grays gathering this year. B is expecting in February so the previous date for the baby shower was end of January... now I needed to get the present together just a wee bit sooner. Started a bib, then finally Friday morning we were able to run errands in Gfld, so I bought a bunch of cotton flannels while L got chicken feed.

Got home and needed to wash and dry/shrink the fabric, so while the machines did that with some supervision, I folded up 22 boxes (Ma had gotten 3 done before she needed to rest), and then Doris and I sorted and filled them all with cashews. Ma currently gives out cashews to almost all the immediate family (kids and grandkids) - Pa started the tradition a few years ago and she's keeping it up. One grandkid doesn't get them, as they were processed in a plant that also processes peanuts (allergy).

Then I think there was an egg delivery and lunch around 3:30-ish, plus maybe a stop at the post office but I'm not sure, plus posting a couple of flyers... and then I had time to work on making things, while L went to kung fu.

Between that night and part of the next morning, made a bag with multiple pockets/holders for stuff inside, 2 coverlets, and 3 receiving blankets. The bag was a combo of a berries print and a plaid primarily, plus a little bit of a third pattern from one of the blanket extras. The covers and blankets were mostly plaids, but also one in red/black buffalo check. Oh, and I had a picture frame with a cow jumping up to go over the moon which I put in one of the pockets, too. The bib isn't done yet, but they liked the bag, blankets and frame :)

SATURDAY
Great lunch, roast beef, veggies, a casserole, carrot jello salad (not my thing but it's a family tradition), salad. Dessert was mostly the usual cookies, and a fruit pie by Aunt Eunice, but also a cheesecake with a GF crust (vanilla wafers) made by B and C.

I'd decided on making a savory veggie dish so my SIL Marsha could have it this time -- carrots, onions, and kale, all chopped and steamed, together with some sprigs of fresh rosemary. I pulled the rosemary out after, and stirred in some butter (Cabot's unsalted natural creamery). Local food! You could salt it if you wished to, but eaten in combo with the other foods it wasn't necessary.

Between lunch and dessert is gift time, so everyone got settled in and Beth and Chris got the first present, a rather large gift bag... when she opened it, a floating mylar balloon that had "It's a Boy!" written on it came out, and the surprise part of the day began :) They received quite a few nice and useful things - onesies, rattles, a cute John Deer outfit, disposable diapers (for emergencies/travel, as they plan on using cloth), baby thermometer, etc.

Regular gifting happened after that, which is mostly for the kids these days, with some between Ma, Dean, and Eunice. Ma couldn't be there, needing to stay closer to home, but we did our best to give a report of goings-on when we got back. We left before dark so L could tend the chickens -- he still ended up using the red head lamp, but at least we were closer to their bedtime than we would have been, so they still had a little light for getting their last drink of the evening.

*raises glass of dandelion wine*

To loved ones and absent friends. Rest in peace, papa.

William is ill and has just been taken off to the hospital. Current thought
is possible food poisoning, but we really don't know at this time. Anyway,
the best place for him to get care is at the hospital. Lyle's about to go
there as well, to take Marian there. I'm home, packing for the event and
generally holding down the fort.

Depending on how things go, we may be late to the event tomorrow.

[EDIT]: It isn't a good picture, but for those who'd like a visual focus for sending any healing energy, there's one of Willie down the page some (Grandpa Gray at his rolltop desk):

Sugaring Season 2007

[UPDATE}: He's been settled in at the hospital. Tests will be run. Stable at the moment. Cause of problem still unknown. L and M are back home.

During my call to my brothers and niece (while they're all over at my mom's), had some interesting conversations. They all live in the same general part of California.

One of my brothers is a Sierra member so I expect some environmental stuff, but my other brother was talking about solar energy, how well does it work in New England, etc. And my niece and I talked about some of this too. Very interesting... Of course solar doesn't work as well here as in sunny California -- although they have their own problems -- lots of sun but not enough water, but that's another topic. And this far north the active solar systems work better than the passive ones.

Which is not to say one shouldn't employ passive solar. In fact without the convenience of affordable electricity and fossil fuels, powering a home in New England takes a fair amount of creativity and variety. Geothermal works all right as long as it isn't too cold -- then you need a backup system (it's hardware problem). Solar panels either need to be cleaned up after it snows or you have to wait until the snow melts (or why some folks prefer setting them up on the ground). Wood is only sustainable if it comes from well-managed forest. Wind power depends on your location (it can't be just windy, it has to have sustained winds at some reasonable height above your location). Hydropower also depends on what's geographically available.

In all cases, the better insulated your home is, the less energy it will need for heating and cooling, leaving more energy for lighting, electronic equipment, etc.

Even in Sunny California where solar could become king in the energy scene, there probably still wouldn't be enough energy to charge transportation vehicles. Although it might be able to do _some_ of that if people also cut back on how much energy they used (dryers are a huge one -- even if you decided to hang dry just your underwear, socks, and t-shirts, you'd start to see a difference in your electric bill).

And there's a limited amount of materials available to make solar panels. Or geothermal piping. Or industrial-size windmills. It isn't just fossil fuels that are limited, but all kinds of materials. One of the important parts of recycling nowadays is that limited materials need to be retrieved for re-use in new computers, etc.

It's tough to work on developing alternative energy because the answer isn't just plug one energy source in to replace another. On the other hand, isn't it nice to have options? I wouldn't mind having a bit of everything (assuming I could afford it), because then it would be more likely I'd have at least some power no matter what -- esp. if I had some decent batteries for storing some of the energy for later :D

One of them, I think it was the brother who never really talked about this stuff before, also talked a bit about global warming. ??!! Well, that's complicated and we weren't going to get in-depth, but I talked about biochar and soil erosion, and mentioned a recent study where scientists were figuring that people accidentally contributed to the Little Ice Age. When the Spanish came to South America, they brought various diseases with them that wiped out 80% of the indigenous population. These folks had a lot of land under cultivation -- an area a little larger than the state of California! Nearly all of that land became forest again, helping to cool off the planet -- in combination with some other things happening at about the same time.

So he says flippantly, well then all we need to do is plant a lot of trees -- we agreed that with the increased levels of pollution we'd probably need enough to cover two Californias -- as if planting all those trees would be that easy :D Granted there's plenty of land here in the U.S. where trees _could_ be planted, but for instance the Southwest is too hot and dry. He mentioned some state up north (Iowa? Idaho?) that was experiencing flooding, since obviously having enough water wouldn't be a problem for them. Yeah, the family sense of humor can be a bit on the dark side on occasion.

Still, I do have a couple of cards from the Arbor Day Foundation waiting for me to send them out. I'll be donating to get some trees planted and then send the cards out to a couple of folks telling them I had trees planted in their names.

fitzw posted most of the weekend here

***
One of the conversations at Rhinebeck was about the Susy wheels. I might still get a Fricke but now that I've seen up close some stuff I like about the Susy, I'll have to compare.

***
I finished harvesting carrots, also gathered in the parsnips and rutabagas. Was supposed to have done the rutabagas a month ago and the carrots a week or so ago, but... oh well. So, some carrots will be stored for a bit and some will be cooked up this week because a hungry little critter nibbled at the tops of some of them. Organic-to-be posted an interesting recipe for carrot pie (looks a lot like the ingredients for pumpkin pie, only with carrots).

I cleared the row of weeds as well but ran out of time and oomph to plant the fall onions and garlic. They will be going in tomorrow.

***
We got baby shower presents for niece S today (boppe pillow & cover, two crib sheets, a sleep sack, and I might make something too), and L got shoes and slacks for going down to the employee conference.

***
Tomorrow and Tuesday L will be helping in the kitchen by cutting up some pumpkins -- I dropped one and one has gotten a little soft, so we're going to cook some of them up this week.

***
Weds. L leaves for the conference. No huge plans for while he's gone, at least as far as the apartment's concerned. Plenty of other things need doing, like artwork.

***
I need to make some applesauce this week with the apples I got at market last week. Then if I have time on Saturday I should get some more from the local guy, Alan Surprenant, before going to the baby shower. Saturday should be interesting -- if I have the energy and will power I'll be hitting the farmer's market then the Fiber Twist Marketplace (moth stuff at least), and then the baby shower.

I hope islenskr and lady_jade01 both feel better soon!

Note to self: research on calories per serving of various foods when I get home. Started to do research before the trip and discovered I'm not consuming enough calories, so body is in 'starvation' mode. Could explain why I was so tired after hours in the garden or cleaning or whatever, as I've been averaging 1200-1500 calories per day. I think what changed is that I stopped having the between meal snacks -- eating habits got broken last year, between the craziness of packing/moving/selling, and then recovery from surgery, I expect.

Hard work and lack of a sufficient caloric intake probably contributed to getting sick, too. Blah. Well, the time lost to stopping for snacks will probably be gained in not staring at the PC screen like a zombie :D And then some, no doubt!

Will be bringing home a few small things from Mom's place, that she'd been intending to give to me. One, for the cooks here, is the Moosewood Cook Book. Also, a small stained glass music box that she and I picked out many years ago at the Polk Street Fair in SF. Beautiful workmanship, it's made to look like a little furniture cabinet, with working doors.

My mom doesn't read my journal (I sent her a letter), but I wanted to say Happy Mother's Day to all the other mothers I know, past, present, and future. Yes, I'm including those who are no longer with us, because without them we wouldn't be here! So, a special greeting from me to my mother's and father's moms, wherever they may be.

Whether you're a birth mom, adoptive mom, foster mom, SCAdian mom, or anyone who's spent a lot of time taking care of folks who need it, Happy Mother's Day!

And of course, Happy Mother's Day to Gaia!